“Brain dead” defense hurts Bruins in loss to Sabres

(Photo: Bridget Samuels/Ikeastan Hockey) Bruins captain Zdeno Chara finished the night a minus-3 in what was a bad night for the Bruins defense

Coming into tonight’s game against the Buffalo Sabres all the talk was about Milan Lucic, Ryan Miller, John Scott and heavyweight fights. After the game the talk was all about Thomas Vanek and the Bruins “brain dead” defense.

The Sabres came into Boston Thursday night and handed the Bruins their first regular season loss of the season in a game that saw some very poor play by the Bruins blue-liners as the Sabres beat Tuukka Rask six times, and lit the lamp seven times in total.

“Defensively, I guess you would say, brain dead” said Bruins head coach Claude Julien in regards to the teams defense

You have to go back all the way to January 1, 2011 to find the last time the Bruins allowed seven goals in a single game. Ironically that loss was to the Buffalo Sabres.

“They’re good players. They make good plays, but I think it was more about us not playing well defensively” said Bruins captain Zdeno Chara.

The Bruins knew that tonight’s performance was very uncharacteristic of them.

“You would like to think so. We usually pride ourselves on defense and being a hard team to play against, and they had a lot of chances tonight from in close, and you can’t really feel too good for any of the goals” said Rich Peverley. “

“So we’ll have to regroup here and look to really play a better defensive game in Toronto.”

It was an all-around tough night for the Bruins as a team, but Chara finished the night with a minus-3 plus/minus rating.

“Yeah, sometimes you’re going to have nights like that” said Chara.” I didn’t play my best game, that’s for sure. I made some mistakes that cost us.”

Defensively the Bruins had no answer for Sabres forward Thomas Vanek. Vanek recorded a hat-trick and also added two assists.

“He’s a natural goal-scorer. I think he’s got a great shot. If he gets those one-timers, you just try to throw yourself out there and hope it hits you” said Rask. “Especially if it’s a wide pass like that one was. And then he gets a 2-on-1, dangles for 10 seconds there, I started swimming, and he roofs it. He scores goals if he gets those chances.”

The Bruins return to action Saturday night when they travel to Toronto to take on the Maple Leafs.

5 READERS COMMENTED

SEM

February 1, 2013

Is Seguin gonna get going or as all the media attention gone to his head .I think he needs to get his head out of his a$$ and stop tweeting to all the little girls and focus on hockey before he becomes a big disappointment.
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Tim Rosenthal

February 1, 2013

Funny that you mention that, SEM, because I’m planning a blog about it at some point today. Stay tuned…
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Mark

February 1, 2013

So true. I think the bigger sheet of ice and the lack of physicality where he played overseas actually hurt his game. He’s no longer the big fish in a little pond — he’s got to man-up and adjust to the NHL game asap.
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Pingback: Gameday: Bruins and Sabres meet again in Buffalo | Bruins DailyFebruary 10, 2013
[…] Of course Bruins fans are well aware of Thomas Vanek’s ability to kill the Bruins on any given night. The former Minnesota Golden Gopher is off to a hot start leading the league with 23 points (11 goals, 12 assists) and recorded five points in last Thursday’s victory. […]